A Study of Signal Penetration Into Building Materials

T. Masri, S.P. Chew, C.P. Wong, K.Lias

Department Of Electronic Faculty Of Engineering University Malaysia Sarawak 94300 Kota Samarahan Sarawak Email : mthelaha@feng.unimas.my
Abstract- This paper reports on the measurements performed for different building materials, different building thickness, different openings and combination of two or all of the variables, that have significant impacts into signal penetration in buildings through experiment setups. Signal strength is measured within the frequency range of 800MHz to 3GHz in the anechoic chamber to determine the signal strength loss due to building materials used. This paper also emphasizes on the design of the anechoic chamber and its absorber in aspects of dimension and type of material used.

such as dielectric permittivity have to be determined precisely and the properties of incident field have non-negligible effect of signal propagation into concrete walls. However there are no literatures showing this kind of studies conducted in ASEAN region. Therefore this paper discusses on the effect of the building properties used towards the signal penetration into it.

II. TEST BED DESIGN & ABSORBER CONSIDERATIONS The common geometrical shapes of the widely used anechoic chambers are generally rectangular, tapered, quasi-tapered or dome. The design of rectangular chamber is based on geometrical optics considerations that intend to minimize the amplitude and phase ripples in the test zone due to the imperfect absorption by the wall lining. The size of the anechoic chamber is determined in relation to the largest dimension of material under test (MUT) to be measured. For immunity testing and pre-compliance emissions testing, the chamber is designed to allow the antenna to be positioned 3m from MUT with distance of 1m between the chamber walls and measuring antenna [3]. The dimensions of the designed anechoic chamber are 16x4x4 (ft) as shown in Figure 1. The chamber is built to be able to separate into two similar units, which allows the procedure of putting the MUT inside the chamber.
4 ft 4 ft

I.

INTRODUCTION

Mobile communications are becoming increasingly personalized, through the unique opportunities offered high signal penetration, the fast evolution of the enabling technology and the related advanced services provision capabilities. Mobile communications are evolving through second and third generation towards further generation systems that offer potential for higher bandwidth, sustainable multimedia capabilities and globally interoperable services. One of the important aspects of wireless radio communications is the knowledge of the building penetration characteristics. The quality of signal received inside buildings varies and there are possibilities of getting interruptions or even calls being terminated while having conversation inside buildings. The quality of services becomes consumers main concern as the communication facilities have reached the higher-degree of technology. Quality of radio signals of such cellular system especially indoor coverage is the major limiting factor to maintain and improve their quality of services. Indoor coverage can be built by using power splitters to deliver signal from the outdoor antenna to indoor antenna distribution system. The propagation of radio signal through buildings is strongly influenced by the building layout, the construction materials and the building type. Walls and obstacles made of different materials obstruct the signal differently. It is found that the wall penetration for 900MHz signals can be in the range of 15 to 27dB, depending on the building construction. The building penetration in the window area is approximately 6dB [1]. There are a number of studies reported on the electromagnetic propagation into re-inforced walls [2], material characteristics

Space to place MUT

4 ft 4 ft

8 ft

8 ft

Figure 1. Separable Anechoic Chamber The materials used to build the chamber and their parameters are as shown by Figure 2 and Table 1 respectively.

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Antenna Cable

MUT

Antenna Cable

8 ft

8 ft

T
3 ft 10 ft

R
3 ft

Stainless Steal Plywood Ferrite Tile P.U. Foam Pyramid Absorber

Figure 3. Pyramidal Absorber Therefore, the overall thickness of the designed pyramidal absorber is at least one-quarter of its wavelength, which approximately 12.0 cm. Figure 4 is also illustrated that the thickness of the ferrite tile of 0.6 cm and thickness of plywood as dielectric layer of 1.2 cm.

T R

Transmitting Antenna Receiving Antenna

Figure 2. Cross Section of Rectangular Anechoic Chamber Table 1. Parameters of Anechoic Chamber Anechoic chamber

10.0 cm

Aluminum Material Plywood

Types

Rectangular

[5ft (length) x 5ft (width)] (x8) [12ft (length) x 5ft (width)] (x8) [5ft (length) x 5ft (width)] (x8) [12ft (length) x 5ft (width)] (x8) 1.2 cm thickness 10ft (length) x 4ft (width) x 4ft (height)

4.0 cm Pyramid Ferrite Tile Plywood (dielectric layer) 2.0 cm

13.8 cm

0.6 cm 1.2 cm

Figure 4. Cross Section Of Designed Pyramidal Absorber The summarization of the designed absorber is shown by Table 2. Table 2. Paramaters Of Pyramidal Absorber Absorber Urethane foam Carbon Material Ferrite tile / / [5ft (length) x 5ft (width)] (x8) [12ft (length) x 5ft (width)] (x8) 0.6 cm thickness Pyramid height = 6.0 cm Dielectric layer (plywood with dielectric constant ~ 2.0)

To design chambers that meet the free space requirements, absorbers are vital elements to produce non-echo and prevent undesirable reflections. An ideal absorber is a reflection free that the incident power is completely dissipated into heat energy and possesses a non-vanishing residual reflection coefficient [4]. In this project, the pyramidal absorbers, which are made of polyurethane foam, ferrite tile and dielectric layer (plywood with dielectric constant 2.0), are placed on each sidewalls of the anechoic chamber. However, these absorbers as illustrated in Figure 3 that used over the reflective surface to reduce the scattered and reflected wave amplitudes, may vary with the absorber physical nature, type, size and test conditions. The maximum height of pyramidal absorber is considered to minimize the effect of scattering. Findings showed that carbonfilled polyurethane cone perform as low as 50dB reflection factor [5] when the length of each cone is at least one-quarter wavelength. Since the frequency range under test is from 1 GHz to 3 GHz, the thickness depends on minimum frequency 1 GHz.

Types

Hybrid (pyramid + ferrite tile + dielectric layer)

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III. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP Pre-measurement is done in the anechoic chamber without MUT to test the reflectivity level. Previous research papers indicated that there is a reflected signal from the surfaces of the chamber when an incident signal is transmitted from transmitting antenna [6]. Both incident signal and reflected signal produce an interference pattern at the receiver, which caused the measurements error in the chamber. A general set up of anechoic chamber is shown in Figure 5 to show the possible placement of transmitting antenna and the receiver.

signal dropped slowly due to the distance inside anechoic chamber, which having better transmission environment compared to open-site measurement. This is due to the quiet zone environment inside chamber that having absorbers lined in every surface of the chamber to reduced scattering and reflection effects.

Figure 6. Open-Site Radiation Measurement

Figure 5. Experimental Set Up Experiments are then conducted in a 1x0.65x0.57 (m) small anechoic chamber by generating radio frequency using signal generator and detection of signal using receiving antenna and spectrum analyzer. The placement of source and test antenna and etc are shown in Table 3. Table 3. Chamber Measurement Setup Source & test antennas Polarization Distance between source & test antenna Distance between antenna & MUT source Uni-directional Vertical (E-Plane) 0.5m 0.25m 800-900MHz 600mW (max) >14dB at 600

Figure 7. Measurement Inside Anechoic Chamber Signal penetration measurement towards materials such as plywood, asbestos, gypsum, glass, clay brick, hollow block, sand brick, aluminum and hardwood are carried out in the anechoic chamber. Based on the results obtained in Figure 8, the highest signal penetrating building material are asbestos and gypsum board. RF signals are almost totally reflected back by aluminum as it only allows 6.59% of signal penetrating towards it. Aluminum as signal reflector is difficult for electromagnetic waves to penetrate into a conductor because of severe impedance matching. The structure and composition of building materials are very significant characteristic in prevail the quantity of signal penetration towards them.

Transmitting frequency Transmitting Power Return Loss

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Measurements have been made to compare open-site and inside anechoic chamber. Resultant from the open site measurement as shown by Figure 6, the amplitude of transmitted signal dropped rapidly due to the increment of distance between antennas. Meanwhile, as shown in Figure 7,

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Figure 10. Material in Vertical E-Field Propagation V. CONCLUSION Figure 8. Signal Penetration Towards Different Types Of MUT At operating frequency of 900MHz, the materials such as glass, plywood, asbestos and gypsum have the highest amplitude while aluminum has the lowest amplitude in both horizontal and vertical E-field propagation, as shown by Figure 9 and 10. However, these obtained results may inaccuracy, as those measurements did not take consideration on the value of dielectric permittivity as every type of material has its own dielectric constant, which used to determine transmission and reflection coefficient. This paper has presented the effects of signal penetration towards building materials and the considerations on the dimensions and parameters of the designed anechoic chamber and absorbers. Further investigations on different thickness of MUTs will be conducted in the designed anechoic chamber. The expected outcomes of this research will contribute to the development of building materials that contribute to the improvement of QoS of signal received inside building. REFERENCES
1. S. Hudson, Indoor Radio Propagation at 915MHz., RF Engineering For Telecommunication, Agilent Technologies, USA, Available at www.educatorscorner.com/media/Exp94e.pdf R. Elodie et al., Electromagnetic Propagation Into Reinforcedconcrete Walls, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, v48,n3,2000,p 357-366 Anechoic Chamber Big Price, No Echo. http://www.conformity.com/0201spotlight.pdf 26 August 2004. Holloway, C.L.; Johansson, M ; Effective electromagnetic material properties for alternating wedges and hollow pyramidal absorbers; Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, 1997. IEEE., 1997 Digest Volume 4, 13-18 July 1997 Page(s):2292 2295 vol.4 H. Chaloupka (1992). Parallel Plate Line. Leybold Didactic GMBH. J. Appel-Hanse, Reflectivity level of radio anechoic chambers, Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on [legacy, pre 1988] Volume 21, Issue 4, Jul 1973 Page(s): 490 - 498

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3. 4.

5. 6.

Figure 9. Material in Horizontal E-Field Propagation

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